Demon of Undoing

Maureen at “Aliens in this World” has been a long time favorite of mine. Her book recommendations have time and again lead to books I really enjoyed that almost certainly I would have never read. Recently she posted about this book.

Demon of Undoing by Andrea Alton isn’t a super-literary book. But it is super-fun sf with the feel of fantasy, fun aliens, fun alien viewpoint character… and darn it, it’s just fun. It came out from Baen in 1988, and I swear it’s been out of print since 1989 or so. Luckily I bought the book and kept it, and I’ve reread it tons of times because it’s fun. The author hasn’t published anything since, except some indie novels that surfaced and disappeared before I could send money out of my hot little hands. I really really need her to publish more. So I need you to buy this book.

It’s a tale of adventure, cleverness, stubbornness, the bond between brothers in arms, and totally ignoring the Prime Directive. In a good way.

Well I did enjoy it. It is great fun and has a good story. It takes place on a planet involving an alien race that is broken up into castes based distinguishing markings on their fur. Fenobar the crippled son of a leader of a tribe is always working to prove himself despite being treated as an outcast. He makes alliance with a “Demon of Undoing” an ostracized creature that legend said would give with one hand and take with the other. So you have some basic story elements that have been done before, but this is true of all stories. The fact that it is done well is what recommends it and one of the twists in the book made it even more enjoyable. Really the only thing that annoyed me about the book is that there aren’t more of them. It is not like I need any more series of books in my life, but wow I would really have liked to see a continuation of the story arc.